Abstract:The genus Tephrosia, belonging to the Leguminosae family, is a large pantropical genus of more than 350 species, many of which have important traditional uses in agriculture because they possess the bioactivity of phytoalexins. This review not only outlines the sources, chemistry and biological evaluations of natural products from the genus Tephrosia worldwide that have appeared in literature from 1910 to December 2013, but also covers work related to proposed biosynthetic pathways and synthesis of some natural products from the genus Tephrosia, with 105 citations and 168 new compounds.

It is well understood that corals harbor diverse microbial communities. Recently, many coral-associated bacteria have been characterized as sources of marine natural products, especially as the coral surface is more nutrient rich than seawater or even sediments. 1,2 Colonization of coral surfaces by bacteria and other microorganisms is mostly nondestructive to corals. Owing to the close spatial vicinity of these biofilm-forming bacteria, it can be expected that the indigenous microbial population is adapted to competitive conditions. 3 The production of secondary metabolites is a common adaptation of these bacteria to compete in such microenvironments. There have been few reports documented on exploration of coralassociated bacteria in the South China Sea as a source of secondary metabolites.In order to obtain biologically active natural products from coral-associated bacteria, we studied the marine bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SCSIO 00856 isolated from the South China Sea gorgonian Junceella juncea. In the preliminary experiments, we found that the culture broth of the strain had strong antibacterial activity towards three bacteria (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphyloccocus aureus) and antilarval activity towards laboratory-reared bryozoan Bugula neritina larvae. In this study, a new 24-membered ring lactone, macrolactin V (1) (Figure 1), together with four known compounds, macrolactin S (2), 4 4-butoxyphenol (3), 5 4-propoxyphenol (4), 6 and 4-ethoxyphenol (5), 6 was isolated from a culture broth of the strain. Macrolactins are polyene macrolides containing a 24-membered lactone ring. About 20 macrolactins have been chemically characterized, including macrolactins A-U, 7-O-succinyl macrolactin A, and 7-O-succinyl macrolactin F, from marine Bacillus sp. sediment isolate, and 7-O-malonyl macrolactin A from Bacillus subtilis soil isolate. 4,7-13 Some of these compounds showed strong antibacterial, anti-tumor, and antivirus activities. 4,7,[9][10][11][12][13] The antibacterial activity of 1-5 against four bacterial strains and the antilarval activity of 3-5 against larval settlement of Bugula neritina and Balanus amphitrite larvae were evaluated. This paper deals with the isolation, structural elucidation of 1 and biological activity of 1-5.The producing strain, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SCSIO 00856, was isolated from the gorgonian coral Junceella juncea in Sanya, Hainan province, China. The strain culture (2 ml) was used to inoculate 50 ml seed medium consisting of 0.4% yeast extract, 0.4% glucose, 0.5% malt meal, and 1.8% sea salt (pH 7.3), in a 250-ml flask. A volume of 20 ml of the resulting culture was used to inoculate 400 ml of the seed medium, in a 1-l flask. The culture was incubated at 27 1C on a rotary shaker operating at 150 r.p.m. for 5 days. The resulting 400-ml culture was used to inoculate 120 l of production medium, in a 200-l fermenter, containing the following components per liter of water: yeast extract 4 g, malt meal 5 g, glucose 4 g, and sea salt 18 g. The production fe...

Coal fires are common and serious phenomena in most coal-producing countries in the world. Coal fires not only burn valuable non-renewable coal reserves but also severely affect the local and global environment. The Rujigou coalfield in Shizuishan City, Ningxia, NW China, is well known for being a storehouse of anthracite coal. This coalfield is also known for having more coal fires than most other coalfields in China. In this study, an attempt was made to study the dynamics of coal fires in the Rujigou coalfield, from 2001 to 2007, using multi-temporal nighttime Landsat data. The multi-temporal nighttime short wave infrared (SWIR) data sets based on a fixed thresholding technique were used to detect and monitor the surface coal fires and the nighttime enhanced thematic mapper (ETM+) thermal infrared (TIR) data sets, based on a dynamic thresholding technique, were used to identify the thermal anomalies related to subsurface coal fires. By validating the coal fires identified in the nighttime satellite data and the coal fires extracted from daytime satellite data with the coal fire map (CFM) manufactured by field survey, we found that the results OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2014, 6 1235 from the daytime satellite data had higher omission and commission errors than the results from the nighttime satellite data. Then, two aspects of coal fire dynamics were analyzed: first, a quantitative analysis of the spatial changes in the extent of coal fires was conducted and the results showed that, from 2001 to 2007, the spatial extent of coal fires increased greatly to an annual average area of 0.167 km 2 ; second, the spreading direction and propagation of coal fires was analyzed and predicted from 2001 to 2007, and these results showed that the coal fires generally spread towards the north or northeast, but also spread in some places toward the east.

Radiometric calibration is a prerequisite to quantitative remote sensing, and its accuracy has a direct impact on the reliability and accuracy of the quantitative application of remote-sensing data. This article attempts to cross-calibrate the visible and near-infrared channels 1 (450-520 nm), 2 (520-590 nm), 3 (630-690 nm), and 4 (770-890 nm) of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS)-02B/charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with channels 3 (459-479 nm), 4 (545-565 nm), 1 (620-670 nm), and 2 (841-876 nm) of the Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), respectively. The radiative transfer modelling (RTM) method is implemented using the CBERS-02B/CCD and Terra/MODIS measurements at the Dunhuang radiometric calibration site in October 2008. The differences between the cross-calibration and vicarious calibration techniques for channels 1, 2, 3, and 4 are 11.15%, -0.89%, 2.88%, and 11.28%, respectively. Furthermore, the accuracies of the cross-calibration coefficients of CBERS-02B/CCD are analysed, wherein the results indicate that the calibration uncertainty is within 5%.

Four new cyclohexylideneacetonitrile derivatives 1-4, named menisdaurins B-E, as well as three known cyclohexylideneacetonitrile derivatives-menisdaurin (5), coclauril (6), and menisdaurilide (7)-were isolated from the hypocotyl of a mangrove (Bruguiera gymnorrhiza). The structures of the isolates were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 1-7 showed anti-Hepatitis B virus (HBV) activities, with EC50 values ranging from 5.1 ± 0.2 μg/mL to 87.7 ± 5.8 μg/mL.

Vicarious calibration and validation techniques are important tools to ensure the long-term stability and inter-sensor consistency of satellite sensors making observations in the solar-reflective spectral domain. Automated test sites, which have continuous in situ monitoring of both ground reflectance and atmospheric conditions, can greatly increase the match-up possibilities for a wide range of space agency and commercial sensors. The Baotou calibration and validation test site in China provides operational high-accuracy and high-stability vicarious calibration and validation for high spatial resolution solar-reflective remote-sensing sensors. Two sites, given the abbreviations BTCN (an artificial site) and BSCN (a natural sandy site), have been selected as reference sites for the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites radiometric calibration network (RadCalNet). RadCalNet requires sites to provide data in a consistent format but does not specify the required operational conditions for a RadCalNet site. The two Baotou sites are the only sites to date that make spectral measurements for their continuous operation. One of the core principles of RadCalNet is that each site should have a metrologically rigorous uncertainty budget which also describes the site’s traceability to the international system of units, the SI. This paper shows a formalized metrological approach to determining and documenting the uncertainty budget and traceability of a RadCalNet site. This approach follows the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement. The paper describes the uncertainty analysis for bottom-of-atmosphere and top-of-atmosphere reflectance in the spectral region from 400 to 1000 nm for the Baotou sites and gives preliminary results for the uncertainty propagating this to top-of-atmosphere reflectance.

Four new jacaranone analogs, marinoids F–I (1–4), were isolated from the fruits of a Beibu Gulf mangrove Avicennia marina. The structures were elucidated based on analysis of spectroscopic data. Marinoids F and G are shown to be diastereoisomers of chlorocornoside, a new halogen containing marine secondary metabolite. The antioxidant activity of the isolates was evaluated using a cellular antioxidant assay, and 4 showed good antioxidant activity (EC50 = 26 μM).

Five zoanthoxanthin alkaloids (1–5) and four sesquiterpenes (6–9) were isolated from the South China Sea gorgonian Echinogorgia pseudossapo. Their structures were determined on the bases of extensive spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D NMR data. Among them, pseudozoanthoxanthins III and IV (1–2), 8-hydroxy-6β-methoxy-14- oxooplop-6,12-olide (6) and 3β-methoxyguaian-10(14)-en-2β-ol (7) were new, 1 and 3 showed mild anti-HSV-1 activity, and 7 showed significant antilarval activity towards Balanus amphitrite larvae.